Late Holocene glacial activity at Bromley Glacier, Cambria Icefield, northern British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada

Abstract

Retreating and downwasting glaciers in the British Columbia Coast Mountains are exposing the remains of forests buried during Holocene-age glacial advances. Despite recent progress in discerning the extent of these advances in the Pacific and Kitimat ranges of the southern and central Coast Mountains, comparatively little is known about the character of these advances in the Boundary Ranges of northwestern British Columbia. This research uses dendroglaciologic and radiocarbon analyses to describe late Holocene glacial advances at Bromley Glacier in the Cambria Icefield area. Four intervals of glacial expansion were identified at ca. 2470–2410, 1850, 1450, and 830 14C years BP. Absent were wood remains associated with mid-Holocene episodes of glacier expansion recorded at nearby sites. The late Holocene deposits described at Bromley Glacier are contemporaneous with those found at other glaciers in the southern Boundary Ranges and contribute to a growing understanding of the synchronous response of glaciers in this region to mass balance fluctuations during the Holocene.